A new toy and flow frustrations

You might recall how I mentioned in my column of May 10 that while fishing in Lordville, NY on the West Branch of the Delaware River, I had taken an involuntary swim. I had not been wading for 10 minutes when my hips and legs went numb and down I went. This caused me to write that I needed to figure out a way to avoid this sort of problem in the future. Sooner or later, one of these frequent spills (12 in the last three years) would result in injuring myself, or my bamboo fly rod. I spent time looking through fishing catalogs for an answer to my problem. I found several, yet none seemed to be the complete answer to my troubles. For years, I have owned an inflatable raft made by Big Sky Inflatables. It is however, too large to solve my wading problems. While we were in Texas, it occurred to me to contact the company to see if they made a “junior model.” To my delight, I discovered that they did indeed make such a raft. I wrote them a letter describing how I wished to use a smaller model. They assured me that they could produce an inflatable that would be the answer to my problems.

Last Wednesday, I received a phone call telling me that my raft had been shipped and should arrive by the 9th or 10th of July. From their brief, over-the-phone description of their smaller product, it seems it will be the perfect answer for this ancient angler. It might even help to get Barbara Ann wading in rivers again. Fear of falling and fracturing a hip has limited her to a few areas where she can cover water from the bank. Oh boy, oh boy, I can’t wait for the new raft to be delivered. If it works as I hope, there will not be a trout in the Delaware drainage that can consider itself safe. Yeah, yeah, I know, it would help if all of my flies were not poorly tied. Yes, and I suppose if I could learn to cast 30 feet without producing macramé work in my leader, the trout would be swimming in more dangerous water. Ah well, who is perfect?